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Thursday, June 6, 2013

Sun, Jun 2 - The snow is thinning...

The snow is finally thinning and made good progress on large sections of dry trail. Of course I also got a chance to use my snowshoes too! As the snow clears, as you might expect, the mud comes. Lots of wet trail, bogs, mushy snow and spots that look like dry gravel that are really quicksand as you sink six inches into muck.

But with the melting also comes wildflowers and huge patches of budding pussy willows. Dropped down to almost 10,500 feet for the first time in many days and the air felt rich with oxogen. But of course it goes right back up to well over 12,500 feet in pass after pass. Without the fear of icy slopes I really enjoyed the outstanding views today. Lots of frozen lakes, waterfalls and cascading rivers, and of course she thru in a few scary snow drifts to scramble over. A really excellent day! Camping at frozen Ute Lake after scrambling down to 12,000 feet off a very cool ridge.